Key Quest: Air and Fire by Judy Colella (color ebook reader TXT) 📖

He was too upset to notice how long he'd been running, but Link suspected it hadn’t been very long at all before emerging into brilliant sunlight. He wasn’t prepared for this; the light in Kokiri Forest was soft and greenish, even at noon, and it took several long, unpleasant minutes for his eyes to adjust. When they did, he raised his head and looked around, curious now. The tunnel of trees had brought him to an area not unlike that which had led to the Meadow, with high, grassy walls on either side, a large tree growing at the start of the opening, and a path that curved around to the right.

“Where are we, Navi?”

“Hyrule Field. Let’s go!” Even in the near-blinding light, she glimmered brilliantly.

He began walking, only to be halted by a strange, rather frightening sight. On one of the higher limbs of a tree beside the path, an owl had perched. Not a cute little owl like the ones he’d seen peering at him from the greenery in the Lost Woods, either. Nope. This owl was huge, and was clearly staring directly at him.

He stared back, awed and not a little concerned. The thing could easily swoop down and snap his neck with that beak, and those talons - !

“Ah! Hello!”

“Okay…Navi, did that owl just say something?” he hissed out of the side of his mouth. Maybe the consequence of leaving the Forest was instant insanity.

“Yes, Link! That’s Kaepora Gaebora!”

Great, he thought. Navi’s lost her mind, too. “You don’t say.”

“He’s a great sage, Link! Talk to him!”

He made a strange face, but cleared his throat and looked up again. “Hello.”

“It appears the time has finally come for you to start your adventure!” said the owl, sounding absolutely jovial.

“I suppose.”

The owl did something weird with his head and continued in a more serious tone. “You will encounter many hardships ahead, Link.”

He knows my name?! “I – er, oh. Why?”

“Because that is your fate. But don’t feel discouraged, even during the toughest times! Now, if you go straight this way - ” He extended a wing to indicate the way the path continued, “- you will reach Hyrule Castle. And there, my boy, you will meet a Princess, which is why you’re going there at all.”

“Is she the ‘Princess of Destiny’?”

“Ah, so he was able to tell you that part, then. Good. Yes, she is.”

He must mean the Great Deku Tree. “Have – have I ever seen you before?”

“No, no. But you’ll be seeing me again! So tell me, young Link, have you understood your instructions, all that I’ve told you?”

It hadn’t been all that much, really, but Link didn’t want to point that out – it would be rude, he felt. So he simply nodded and said he had.

“All right, then! I’ll see you around! Hoot-hoot-hoot-ho!” This last bit didn’t sound at all like the noise a real owl would make. In fact, it sounded like a person imitating an owl.

How very odd.

Before Link could say anything in reply, the great bird pushed away from the branch and flew off.

“Link!”

“Yes, Navi?”

“Let’s hurry! We don’t want to be caught in the field at night!”

“We don’t?”

“No! Hurry, Link!”

He nodded and began trotting, but didn’t get very far before coming to another halt. He’d topped a rise in the land that extended past the walls, and there, stretched out before him in various shades of green, was Hyrule Field. Without a doubt it was the biggest thing he’d ever seen, and looked like it went on forever. Slightly to his right and somewhat distant, he could see what looked like some kind of stairway that led up into the foothills of a mountain. Ahead and also rather far away were the walls of a town. He wasn’t really sure, never having seen one before, but he suspected this was Hyrule Castle’s town. Trees dotted the field toward his left, up and down some pretty hilly terrain.

“Link!”

“I know, Navi. Hurry.” He smiled and started running. How amazing it was to be able to run for such a distance without having to worry about crashing into a wall or hitting a tree!

Link had always longed to be able to run like this, and he did a few forward tumbles as he went, laughing, feeling totally free for the first time in his life.

He stopped a few times to catch his breath, but honestly didn’t want to. A stream that looked like it originated from around the town flowed along on his right, and he drank from it before going the final stretch.

He had begun to walk at this point, a sudden weariness slowing his progress, and it was with mild shock that he realized the sun was going down. How long had he been running? And was this field really so big that it had taken him all day to cross it?

He was hungry now, too, but decided to wait until he was inside the walls before having his meal.

When he got to the gates, he saw a wooden bridge crossed over the water, and was surprised by the chains attaching it to the town’s stone walls.

“Why are there chains, Navi?” he asked, as he went over the planks.

“It’s a drawbridge, Link! The chains pull it up at night so no one can get in after dark.”

“Why?”

“Oh, there are enemies out in the Field!”

He nodded, his idea of enemies having been upgraded considerably since a day ago. “Well, now what?” The man-made walls he was passing were impressive to his ten-year-old eyes, especially since he’d lived his entire life in nature.

“Let’s go in here, Link!”

“Here” was a wooden door leading into the first building on their right and not very far from the drawbridge. Link pushed the door open, entered, and found himself in a room full of clay pots and several large wooden crates. At the far end stood a being unlike any he’d yet seen. Dressed in metal with a shiny metal hat, he was holding a tall pole with some sort of sharp metal tip mounted on the top. He was easily twice the boy’s height, unlike the Kokiri who only grew tall enough to look like, well, like ten-year-old children in size. Link approached the metal-clad man slowly, not sure what kind of reaction he’d get.

“Hello there, boy.”

Ah. That kind of reaction. “Hello. Who are you?”

“Aw, just a guard.”

“Are you – you aren’t a Kokiri. What are you?”

“A Hylian, of course!” Even though the man towered over Link, he had a pleasant smile and nice eyes.

“The Forest is part of Hyrule, too, but its people aren’t Hylian.”

“Of course not, you funny kid! The Land of Hylia isn’t the same as Hyrule, now is it!”

“Oh. No, I suppose not. So…you’re a – a Hylian, and what other kinds of, of people are there?”

“The Kokiri, of course, and humans. Well, and the Gorons. And the Zoras, naturally. I take it you haven’t gotten around very much.” He leaned down and peered more closely at Link. “Hmm. You could be a Kokiri, but I don’t know. You’re not small enough…but you do have a fairy, and you’re in green. Huh! I’d have to say you’re the most interesting thing to happen to me in a long time! Tell you what – this is a storage building that has some magical properties, and because I’m grateful to have this break in the monotony, I’ll let you have some fun here!”

“Fun?” How much fun was he supposed to have with pottery and boxes?

“Break as many of these as you like, and keep whatever you find in them!” He waved a hand at the room. “They’re full of rupees.”

“I don’t need rupees, but thank you.”

“Hey, wait – hear that?”

Link frowned. This guy was loopy. Hear what?

The guard laughed and nodded at a crate to his left. “Break that and see what’s in it. Don’t tell me you can’t hear it!”

Link went closer to the crate indicated and put an ear to its surface.

Scratchity-scratch! Scratchity-scratch!

Crap. A Skull-tula – a Gold one, too, it sounded like. Why would this person think he should let the dang thing out?

“Get the medallion, Link!”

Oh.

“All you have to do is go over there so you can get a running start, then roll into it.”

“Won’t that hurt?”

“Probably, but so what? You won’t die!”

Then you do it, he wanted to say. He also had been meaning to ask Navi why he was collecting the medallions in the first place. “Er, sure. Why not?” It wasn’t like he’d hadn’t just been rolling out in the field…

“Oof! Ow!” A moment later he was sitting up amid a scattering of splintered wood and rubbing his right shoulder. His run toward the box had been a bit too fast, his tuck-and-roll a bit too late, and he’d slammed into the wall, hard. The box, he’d discovered to his discomfort, had broken apart much more easily than he ever would have guessed.

“Link! Get up! The Gold ‘tulla!”

Oh. That.  It was scratching a mere foot away, but he wasn’t frightened. After dealing with something the size of Gohma, no other arachnid would bother him that much. “Right.” He stood, flexed his injured shoulder and took out the sling-shot.

Zing! Whack! Zing! Crunch! The ‘tula imploded and he picked up the resulting medallion.

“Hey, kid, that was great! You okay?”

Link resisted the urge to glare. “Thanks. I’m fine. Well, I should go now.”

“Aw, that’s too bad! You’re great company. Come back, all right?”

The boy nodded, not sure what to think about all that, gave the man a smile, and went out.

“Turn right, Link!”

Since I wasn’t planning on leaving the town already by going left, Navi, that’s…argh. “Thank you, Navi.”

They traveled between a row of buildings, their size a source of great fascination to the boy as he absently rubbed his injured shoulder, peering about with understandable curiosity while he walked. Ahead, he could see and hear more people and from what he could tell, they were all incredibly tall, like the guard.

Soon, the road led past the buildings and opened into a vast paved area with a circular fountain in the middle, boxed plants growing on either side of the road where it continued on the other side of the fountain, the entire space bordered by other buildings, most of which had signs hanging over their doors – shops, something called an arcade, if he was reading the word right, and various businesses.

“This place is…I had no idea something like this existed, Navi!”

“Hyrule Castle Town is very different from your Village, yes! But we must find the Princess!”

“Is she here, in the town?”

“No, Link, she lives in the Castle! There!” She flew upward and when he followed her with his gaze, saw the spires of a massive structure off in the distance ahead.

“Oh.” Oh, indeed. Talk about intimidating! “Um, could I look around here just a little bit first? I’m really hungry, Navi.”

She’d flown back to his shoulder. “Of course. I keep forgetting you have to eat.”

“Don’t you?”

“No, not in the same way. But hurry, please?”

He nodded and looked for a place to sit. To his right was a market booth surrounded by people, most of them talking, some of them lifting colorful folds of cloth from the booth’s table to examine it. Beyond that were a number of shops in a long row that ended at an alleyway. Some of the  individuals on that side of the square were walking about in couples or small groups, still others looking bored and going, it seemed, nowhere. I woman was complaining to no one in particular about how her naughty dog had run off again, and she didn’t know what to do. A younger couple stood amid the crowd, their arms around each other, staring into each other’s eyes, clearly oblivious to everyone and everything around them.

To Link’s left stood